2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

Samantha Shannon is currently only 23 years old! I amazed that she already has one book published (The Bone Season), is releasing a second book (The Mime Order) at the end of January, and has a contract with a publishing company to produce five more. I feel like such a loser compared to her!

When I first read The Bone Season, I was a little underwhelmed. It was pushed as the next Harry Potter, which is an unfair comparison for ANY series EVER, but it didn't live up to the expectation I set it. The Bone Season, if you haven't already read it, is set in the future where paranormal abilities are rampant throughout society. I felt that things in the book weren't fleshed out or explained enough, but the world that Shannon developed has potential, so I'm interested to see what she does with The Mime Order. Hopefully it will be a little less garbled at the beginning and explain things a bit better this time around.

Brittany wrote: "Samantha Shannon is currently only 23 years old! I amazed that she already has one book published (The Bone Season), is releasing a second book (The Mime Order) at the end of January, and has a con..."

So agree with the Harry Potter comment. My attention was drawn to The Bone Season originally because of a news article comparing the two. I'm grateful I waiting awhile after that to read it - I absolutely adored it. Your thoughts about the beginning being a bit garbled/hard to follow are spot on. Still was one of my favorite books from 2014, and I actually have set The Mime Order as my Week 4 book (published this year).

Jacki wrote: "Brittany wrote: "Samantha Shannon is currently only 23 years old! I amazed that she already has one book published (The Bone Season), is releasing a second book (The Mime Order) at the end of Janua..."

It was a good book, don't get me wrong, I definitely couldn't put it down, I just had a re-read a few pages over a couple of times to grasp what was happening. That's awesome that you're reading it in week four though! You'll have to let me know what you think of it. You're reading it two weeks before me (knock on wood I don't fall behind), but I still want to know exactly what you think!

I'm reading The Bone Season right now and I'm so glad I wasn't the only one that felt the world building left me a bit confused. I think the author struggled with balancing the flow of the story and explaining things to death. I think she wanted to keep the narrative as it would be if Paige were just telling someone her story rather than leading us by the hand. I'm about a third of the way through it and some of the vocab still catches me off guard, but I'm really getting into the story. Looking forward to The Mime Order too.

As I expected when I wrote this out near the end of January, I have fallen behind with reading. A few things have happened in my personal life that have prevented me from reading as much as I have planned, but I did finish The Mime Order yesterday. It was much better than the first! I was pleasantly surprised. The plot was a little slow in the beginning, but I felt like I was much more in tune with everything that was going on, who the characters were, what their abilities were, etc etc. It was an easier read than The Bone Season and it made me excited about the books to come, which The Bone Season DID NOT. So overall it was good, and I feel like Shannon is coming into her own as a writer the more she does it. I'm excited for the next five books!